Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Meal Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Sift together the corn meal, wheat flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.
Add the egg and enough milk to create a batter; beat thoroughly.
Cook immediately on a lightly greased hot griddle.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Gives the cakes their coarse, slightly crumbly texture and corn flavour.
- Wheat flour
- Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and turn light.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set during cooking.
The step that matters
Cook immediately on a hot griddle. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid, so the batter loses lift if it waits. A hot, lightly greased griddle sets the outside quickly so the cakes rise and brown evenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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